The Chicago Board of Education has been called racist and is being sued for firing a number of African-American teachers in 2011. The lawsuit, filed by the Chicago Teachers Union Local, the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO, and three teachers, claims that African-American teachers were fired at a higher rate compared to white teachers.

The board fired 480 tenured teachers in June 2011, out of which 42 percent were African-American. African-American teachers accounted for only 29 percent of the tenured teachers in the Chicago Public Schools.